Chapter Fourteen: Casper High's Snow Day
Wes woke up soaking wet in his own bed. That's weird, I stopped wetting the bed two years ago, he thought. Then, the events of the night before came rushing back to him – how Danny had set an obsessive ghost desperate for friendship on him. Wes shot up in his bed, and glanced around the room. He grinned to himself, Klemper was nowhere to be found! The stupid ghost must've left sometime after he fell asleep. Yes! Wes was free!
"What's wrong, friend?"
Wes's heart almost jumped out of his chest. The green-skinned specter had appeared inches away from his own face, sporting a nauseous, buck-toothed grin. Wes let out a small yelp at the close proximity and backed up against his headboard. He had to take a few deep breaths before his heart returned to a normal pace.
"You're still here," Wes wheezed. "Great."
"Good morning bestie! Did you have good dreams? I did!" before Wes could think to say anything else, Klemper started telling Wes all about his dream. "The two of us were giving the Lunch Lady a makeover and Skulker baked us ecto-cookies and then the halfa showed up and we beat him with a pinata stick and he exploded into a bunch of candy and we ate the candy, which is sad, but then-"
Wes's brain was too tired to process half of what Klemper was saying, "What the actual fuck are you talking about?" Klemper continued rambling.
"-the other halfa showed up and we rode roller coasters together until the roller coasters became fire and it was really hot, so I made it snow to get rid of the fire, and I might've accidentally made it snow in your room too – isn't that great!?"
"No," Wes said irritated. "I didn't know ghosts could sleep. But at least now I know why my bed's suddenly a waterbed.
"Oh yeah, I can't sleep – ghosts have something else called dormancy. I don't know how to explain it."
Wes suddenly wondered if Danny actually slept or if he was 'dormant' like Klemper. Wes doubted it – he fell asleep way too many times in class for that to be the case. Maybe if he found any ghosts that slept like humans, that was how he could distinguish real ghosts from hybrids (or halfas, as Klemper had informed him they were called). Wait – hadn't Klemper just said something about another halfa a minute ago? Even though Klemper was annoying as hell (don't get him wrong, he was still going to get rid of the bastard as soon as possible), maybe he could provide Wes with the information he was looking for.
"Klemper," Wes turned to the ghost, putting on his best 'friendly face' (it burned him on the inside to do this), "did you say that there was another half-ghost?"
"Oh yeah," he nodded, "Plasmius. The first halfa before Phantom. He's kinda mean. One time, I went to his lab to surprise him because it was the seven month anniversary of when I hugged him, and he told me that he'd never be my friend and then threw me into the Ghost Zone. And it just – it just really stung my – my FEELINGS..."
Klemper started crying again, and snow and wind immediately started tearing Wes's room apart. Wes wanted to find out more information about Plasmius, but he knew that it was impossible to get anything useful out of Klemper in this state. After a few minutes, he managed to calm him down, but by then he had accidentally glanced at the time.
There were only five minutes left before class started and Wes lived in Elmerton. Basically, he was screwed.
Wes immediately started scrambling around his wet, torn up room looking for his things. Since Klemper was still hanging around, he figured that he would just wear the same clothes he slept in because he did not feel like changing in front of him. After lacing up his shoes, Wes found his backpack stuck to the door with some green goo. Sparing himself time by not questioning it, he ripped it off the door and ran out of the room. Wes thought he was making pretty good time until he realized Klemper was floating along behind him, "Where are we going?"
Wes groaned, he didn't have time for this, "I'm going to school, you're staying here. I'll be back at 4." And I'll probably have some ghost hunters with me to get rid of you, Wes thought.
"Okay," Klemper said, as he continued to float with Wes. "We'll be back here at 4."
"No, you're staying here," Wes said, hoping to make him understand. "I'm the only one leaving, because you can't come to school with me."
"Yes I can. I have to stay with my friend."
"I'm not your friend!" Wes snapped.
"You're right," Klemper said, "you're my bestie!"
Wes screamed. "And you're a pain in the ass! You are fucking staying!"
Klemper whimpered, "Mean words."
Mean words... maybe Wes could scare him off with profanity. He smiled before jumping into a tirade of cuss words, "Bitch! Shit! Cunt! Dick! Kiss my ass, motherfucker! Fuckity fuck fuck fuck! Is that mean enough for you?"
Klemper's face was too broken to cry, "STOP IT!"
Wes stamped his foot into the floor, "FUCK YOU!"
To Wes's surprise, Klemper disappeared in a puff of blue. Feeling a cold sense of victory, Wes laughed. He honestly hadn't expected that to work, and now that stupid ghost was finally gone! Not bothering to check if Klemper was still lingering around, Wes ran out the door of his apartment and started sprinting to school.
About halfway on his way to school, the air around Wes got really cold. He spun around, but nothing was there. He went to take another step, and a voice called out above him, "Bestie, you don't have to walk. I can fly you to where you want to go."
For a second, Wes saw a horrifying vision of Klemper carrying him bridal style. Once again, he screamed.
Mr. Lancer was used to a number of strange things happening in Casper High. He had grown used to things like meat from the teacher's lounge mysteriously disappearing, mass property damage out of nowhere, vanishing school counselors and exchange students, a ghost superhero frequenting the school, the occasional possessed student, a viral disease sweeping the student body in a day, ghost invasions, his own doppelgänger, a haunted summer camp, and Daniel Fenton and his friends constantly running to God knows where, but this... this was a new one.
Never before had a ghost followed one of his students to school and started harmlessly floating around his classroom.
"Weston!" he called, looking at the distressed boy's worried face, "What is happening?"
The rest of the class was eerily calm, and some boys had started throwing erasers at the ghost. The erasers harmlessly fell through the green and pink specter who didn't seem to care that he was being used as a moving target. Others had seen the distraction as an opportunity to get out their phones and were recklessly attempting to hide them under their desks, but Lancer noticed anyway. There were three particular students... that seemed to have a peculiar reaction to the thing flying around the room. Daniel Fenton, Samantha Manson, and Tucker Foley were grinning ear-to-ear as if the sight of the ghost was some kind of twisted inside joke – which confused Lancer because he had always assumed the three of them were terrified of ghosts.
"He won't leave," Wes hissed. "I tried everything."
"Why is he – uh – following you anyway?"
Weston mumbled something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like "Fenton's fault", but Lancer knew he must've heard wrong.
"What was that, Weston?" Lancer questioned.
"I uh – ticked off Phantom yesterday, so he told that ghost to bother me," Wes blurted.
Lancer was dumbstruck. Phantom, Amity's ghost fighting hero, told another ghost to follow Wes, because Wes had somehow 'ticked him off'. Lancer was afraid to ask what Wes had even done, so he didn't.
"That explains why Phantom hasn't shown up yet," Lancer muttered.
"Wes, what are you talking about?" Valerie Grey poked Wes in the arm.
A look of panic crossed Wes's face for a moment, before he started sputtering, "Uh – well, it's hard – uh – to explain – uh, Val."
"Yeah, what the hell'd you do that made Phantom pin this idiot on you?" Dash asked Wes. "I'm guessing it had something to do with your little theory."
"It's not a theory, it's real!" Wes yelled.
Lancer was confused by the exchange between his students, and he seemed to be the only one out of the loop. Almost everyone in the room spared a laugh at Wes's outburst.
"Wes," Valerie said carefully, "what did I tell you yesterday?"
Wes ignored her, "I can prove it this time!" he stood up from his seat and addressed the ghost, "Klemper, tell them about the halfa!"
The ghost looked like it was about to say something, when a look of fear crossed it's face. Lancer noted it's eyes were locked on someone behind him. He turned to his right and saw that the ghost was looking at Daniel, Samantha, and Tucker who were sitting alone.
"I – um, I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about." Additionally, Klemper lowered his voice to where nobody but Danny could possibly hear it. "I'm loyal to my friend, and his secret."
Dash chortled with laughter, "Crazy Wes Phantom, talking to his wittle ghost friends."
"You take that back!" Wes said. "Think about it, if Fenton really is a ghost, then of course Klemper would be scared to admit it, because that would mean that Fenton could kick his ass!"
Fenton looked at Wes, "Dude, I can't even kick a ball in gym."
Lancer was momentarily lost. What was Wes talking about Fenton being a ghost? That made as much sense as saying that Dash was a straight A student who did all of his homework by himself (Lancer wasn't as clueless as he let on, he just let Dash get away with it because he couldn't get any proof).
"Weston, may I ask, what are you ranting about? What do you mean 'if Fenton is really a ghost'?"
"Wes has this crazy idea that Danny is secretly Danny Phantom because they have the same name," Samantha said. "As his best friend, I totally verify it because it's so freaking logical that he just magically dies and turns into a ghost and then comes back to life when he feels like it. And I mean, his ghost hunting parents wouldn't notice at all that their son is the same kind of creature they hunt, not to mention the town's superhero."
"Shh, Sam," Daniel said jokingly, "you're not supposed to tell anybody."
Lancer was horrified when the two of them laughed. Wes looked over at them with an accusing glare, and Lancer was finally starting to understand some of the weird shit that Wes had been getting himself into in the past two months. Numbly, he sank back into his seat and called it a free period. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't disturbed by Wes's far-fetched delusions. There was clearly something different about Daniel Fenton, but if Lancer knew anything, it was that Danny couldn't be a ghost because he was simply just too... alive.
Fast forward to third period, and Klemper was still stuck to Wes like glue. Unlike Mr. Lancer, who just tolerated the ghost – Mrs. Rosenbalm was having none of it. She finally snapped when Klemper ruined her Declaration of Independence poster by covering it ice and when he threw her stapler at Mikey for a 'friendly game of catch'. If Danny Fenton hadn't tripped and knocked Mikey's desk to the side, it would have hit him straight in the head. A blow like that would leave serious bruises, possibly even resulting in a concussion.
"Fenton," Mrs. Rosenbalm said, gripping her pencil as if she was about to snap it in half, "what's your parents' phone number, I need to call them."
"Uh..." Danny said, nervously, "why my parents' number? I didn't do anything wrong this time!"
Mrs. Rosenbalm sighed, "Nobody did anything wrong, expect for that stupid thing in the corner." The class looked at Klemper who was playing experimentally with one of the ceiling tiles in the corner. "Since someone provoked Phantom-"
"Oh sure, blame me," Wes rolled his eyes. "It's his fault for being so childish."
"-it's about time we call some professional ghost hunters. And aside from the Red Huntress, your parents are the only option."
"Oh..." Danny said. "That makes sense." He recited the number from memory and Mrs. Rosenbalm walked into her office to make the call.
"We'd be able to get rid of it quicker if somebody would stop being so freaking cocky for once," Wes spat at Danny.
Making sure that everyone else was out of earshot, he replied with a smug smile, "What do you mean cocky? I'm protecting Klemper; it would break his heart if I had to separate him from his bestie, Westie."
Wes growled, and looked Danny dead (no pun intended) in the eye, "You think you're so damn better everyone else just because you have stupid little powers, but one of these days I'm going to make sure that everyone here knows your secret and when that day comes-"
"THE CEILING IS BROKEN!" Almost everyone in the room jumped out of their seats at Klemper's random exclamation. He was holding up a ceiling tile and staring at it in amazement.
"Klemper, put the tile back in the ceiling!" Wes yelled at him, pissed from being interrupted from his threatening speech.
"Okay!" Klemper said, accidentally screaming in Kwan's ear. Kwan winced and sent Wes a menacing glare. Wes chose to ignore it, and turned back to where Danny was watching him with amused eyes.
"See," Danny said, "you guys get along great! I knew what I was doing, introducing you two."
Wes's demeanor hardened, "Well it doesn't matter. He's about to be sucked up like a vacuum by your parents any minute."
"Huh?" Danny asked. "My parents? Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell Mrs. Rosenbalm but they won't be here for a while. Right now they should be out shopping for Thanksgiving tomorrow and neither of them have cell phones. It's around 9:30 so they probably just left the house, and knowing how long my Dad likes to shop for food... it could be another two to four hours before they even get back to the house."
Wes stared at the wall blankly... two to four more hours with Klemper? Oh God, he was going to die.
"Hello, Wes?" Danny waved his hand in front of his face. "Anyone in there?"
"Fuck you, Fenton."
"I love you too, Wes."
If there was a bright side to having an otherworldly stalker with snow powers, it was the instant popularity Wes received by treating the entire cafeteria with free snow cones. It was kind of his apology for dragging a ghost in the school and disrupting all of his classes. Surprisingly, Danny scarfed down three cones by himself (he wasn't going to give any to Danny in the first place, but he used his intangibility to take some while Wes's back was turned).
"Dude, this is like your third cone," Tucker said to Danny. "Can't you just use your own ice powers and have snow cones all the time?"
"There's a difference between ice and snow powers, Tucker," Danny licked his snow cone. "I've tried to make snow cones, but they keep coming out as ice instead. I mean, I have the power to make snow I just don't know how to use it yet."
"What about shaved ice?" Tucker asked. "You could sell some during the summer and make a shit-ton of money off of it."
Danny shrugged, "Maybe."
Next was Wes's fifth period gym class, which he fortunately, did not share with Danny. Tetslaff chose to be lazy today and had them play a game of volleyball. Unfortunately, Klemper kind of decided that he wanted to play too, so he started firing his own snowballs at the students. Eventually some of the students started to throw some of the leftover snow back at Klemper – and then all hell broke loose. Klemper covered the entire gym floor with snow and the room divided itself by athletes and nerds. Wes, being a basketball player, was naturally on the athlete side. Klemper however... decided to go against Wes and joined the nerds. With the addition of the super-powered snow ghost, the two teams were actually fairly matched and spent the whole period pulverizing each other with snowballs.
"This is it men," Dale said gravely, "the final battle. The one that decides who will be victorious – us jocks, or those shrimpy textbook weaklings. It's now or never, so grab your ammo and let's beat the shit out of some nerds and a lame ghost!"
The two teams fought it out until someone accidentally hit Tetslaff in the face with a snowball, so she made everyone run around the gym on the slick, wet floor. In other words, it was a draw.
Wes had almost forgotten about the Fenton's until Jack and Maddie came crashing in through the second story window of his geometry class.
"WHERE'S THE GHOST?!" Jack bellowed. "I didn't get the wrong room again, did I?"
"No honey," Maddie told her husband, "this is the right room – see that putrid protoplasm unleashing havoc?" She held up her gun, and it whirred to life, "This should take care of it!"
"Wait!" said one of the boys from Wes's gym class. "He's not doing anything, he's just floating around and singing the Macarena."
The Fentons looked and saw Klemper slowly hovering in circles while humming.
Maddie's expression never wavered, "He's a threat to your safety and has to be neutralized." She shot the Fenton Bazooka, which created an artificial portal and pulled Klemper inside in a matter of seconds.
"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, for your help," said Ms. Merluzzi with uncharacteristic positivity. "We tried everything we could to get rid of him, but to no avail. Phantom wouldn't even help."
"HA!" Jack said triumphantly, "We were able to take down a ghost that Phantom couldn't! Take that, ghost-kid!"
"Well, we better leave now Jack," Maddie said, approaching the newly broken window. "You can bill us for the damage."
Jack followed his wife, but stopped at where Wes was sitting, "Y'know," Jack said, "you kind of remind me of that blasted ghost kid."
Wes looked back at Danny's father... was this some kind of sick joke? I look like Phantom, when his son is the literal Phantom himself! Wes ground his teeth, "I get that a lot."
Jack laughed, "I can see why. You look just like him!"
Wes bit the inside of his cheek to keep from screaming when Jack turned around and smiled at Danny, "Oh, hey son, how's it going?"